HRC Blog

Jeydon Loredo Graduates from High School

Jeydon Loredo, a transgender teenager from Texas who was prohibited from wearing a tuxedo in his high school yearbook, is graduating next weekend. HRC congratulates Jeydon and his family on his graduation after the emotional hardships and struggles Jeydon went through this year.

After La Feria High School would not let Jeydon wear a tuxedo in his yearbook photo last November, Jeydon’s friends and family reached out to HRC President Chad Griffin. HRC partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center to challenge the decision made by the school board. The School District eventually agreed to allow Jeydon’s photo in the yearbook, and further agreed to include gender expression in its anti-discrimination policies.

Jeydon spoke at HRC’s Time to THRIVE conference in Las Vegas and has become a face of the transgender movement.

Jeydon is an inspiration, but far too many LGBT youth feel unsafe and excluded at school. LGBT youth experience bullying at school more frequently than their non-LGBT peers and are twice as likely to experience verbal harassment, exclusion and physical attack at school as their non-LGBT peers.

HRC is working to expand the conventional understanding of gender. HRC’s report, Supporting and Caring for our Gender-Expansive Youth, uses the experiences of young people to provide adults with a better understanding of gender. It is also aimed at helping adults find ways to communicate with and support all youth in their lives.